Tl;dr

• As of now, the metadata storage of web3 games, NFTs, and DAOs still rely on the centralized web2 databases, and the on-chain data storage can’t be commercialized in the short and medium term.
• By creating a structured relational data framework, Tableland releases the metadata originally hosted on IPFS, so that all metadate can be muted, queried, and composed. All of this is achieved through its decentralized structured data network, which greatly reduces the development threshold for developers.
• The advantage of this is that all metadata that has been built can be flexibly retrieved or changed in Tableland according to the development of its application layer (such as the integration and upgrade of game props, the content change of NFTs, and the evolution of DAOs)
• This technology enables Rigs NFT holders (total supply of 3k only) not only to independently change the content and characteristics of NFTs, but also to act as validators of the data network by staking and delegating, and to continuously obtain considerable cash flows through node operations. This design is equivalent to realizing POS mechanism in NFT. Through Tableland’s continuous income in 2b business, NFT can continue to obtain token income, completely breaking the model of Ponzi-scheme token issued by NFT projects.
• The project roadmap indicates that the token economics and mainet launch plan will be released in Q4 of 2022.
• The project’s parent company, Textile, has previously received investment from Multicoin and Coinbase, and has been cultivating the field of decentralized data storage in the past five years. Due to the consideration of artistry, team has set a mint price of 0.05 eth for Rigs instead of freemint, and the floor prices stabilized at 0.8 eth as of July 19th, which leads to 15x of ROI since minting.
• The core development team is withing the Proof ecosystem. As a top blue-chip project, Proof/Moonbirds founder Kevin Rose personally endorsed it. Not only the official and personal Twitter accounts followed this project, Kevin also gave an exclusive interview to Tableland’s founder last month. Subsequently, the newly established NFT fund 121G.Fund by Ryan Carson, the former COO of Moonbirds swept the floor and purchased 45 Rigs. The floor price has then be pushed up to about 1 eth.
• On July 19th, Tableland reached a cooperation with dapphaus, becoming the technology provider for the latter to develop games in Decentraland and extend it to other metaverses to create NFTs for customized composable and dynamic game props, successfully achieved the commercialization of the technology.

The following content is excerpted from the project’s white paper. Some portions might be very technical. If you are only looking for NFT contents, you can skip this section.

What is Tableland Network?

The Tableland Network is a decentralized web3 protocol for structured relational data, starting with Ethereum (EVM) and EVM-compatible L2s. With Tableland, traditional web2 relational database capabilities are now possible by leveraging the blockchain layer for access control. But, Tableland isn’t a new database — it’s just web3-native relational tables.

The Problem

Web3-native apps are forced to make a choice when storing application data: fit everything into the web3 mould, or use a hybrid web2 approach. Fitting everything into a web3-native stack often equates to costly or complex designs to store data on-chain or use decentralized file storage as a pseudo-database. With a hybrid approach, apps are deployed on web3 (using smart contracts, frontends on IPFS, etc.), but traditional, centralized web2 databases (AWS, Google Cloud, etc.) are still being used for a subset of structured data. Tableland offers a new approach that enables dapps to store relational data in a web3-native network, without having to make these tradeoffs.

The Solution

Tableland is a new tool for fullstack decentralized applications. In tandem with other distributed work infrastructure, blockchains, and decentralized storage providers, there are infinite possibilities for truly web3-native experiences while using Tableland’s infrastructure for structured relational data.

In fact, a common example is NFT projects. These often use IPFS or decentralized storage providers to host their metadata, which ensures it is openly accessible but makes it immutable. This leads to a limiting experience since the metadata itself cannot change (”mutate”), nor is it easily queryable or composable. Alternatively, a centralized / hosted server provides a way for metadata to be dynamic as well as supports query capabilities, but it does not enable composability; hosted servers are not “open” web3-native solutions. With Tableland, metadata can be mutated (if desired, using access controls), queried (using the familiar SQL), and is composable (with other tables on Tableland) — all in an entirely decentralized fashion.

From a user’s perspective, the experience should feel the same at the surface, but the underpinning Tableland infrastructure makes the developer’s journey significantly easier and opens the door to an endless metadata playground.

How Does Tableland Work?

Tableland decomposes a traditional relational database into two primary components: on-chain registry with Access Control Logic (ACL), and off-chain (decentralized) tables. Each table in Tableland is initially minted as an ERC721 token on the base EVM-compatible layer. Thus, there’s an on-chain table owner that can set ACL privileges for a table, and the off-chain Tableland Network manages the creation of and subsequent mutations to the table itself. The link between on-chain and off-chain is all handled at the contract level, which simply points to the Tableland network (using baseURI + tokenURI, much like many existing ERC721 tokens that use IPFS gateways or hosted servers for metadata).

Only those with the proper on-chain privileges can write to a specific table. Table reads, however, do not have to be an on-chain operation and can use the Tableland gateway; thus, read queries are free and can come from a simple frontend request or even other non-EVM blockchains. Now, in order to use Tableland, a table must first be created (i.e., minted on-chain as an ERC721). The deploying address is initially set as the table owner, and this owner gets to set the permissions for any other users that attempt to interact with the table in a mutating capacity. For example, the owner can set rules for who can update/insert/delete values, which data they can alter, or even decide if they’d like to transfer ownership of the table to another party. Plus, more complex queries can join data from multiple tables (owned or non-owned) to create an entirely dynamic and composable relational data layer.

Consider the following diagram, which generalizes a new user’s interactions with a table that’s already been deployed to Tableland by some dapp:

Here’s the overall flow of information:

1. New user interacts with a dapp’s UI and tries to update some information stored in a table on Tableland.

2. dapp calls the Tableland registry smart contract to run this SQL statement, and this contract checks the dapp’s smart contract, which contains custom ACLs that define this new user’s permissions. A couple of things to note:

a) The custom ACLs in a separate smart contract for the dapp is an entirely optional but advanced use case; developers do not need to implement custom ACLs and can use the Tableland registry smart contract’s default policies (where only the owner has full permissions).

b) Write queries can also use a gateway instead of calling the Tableland smart contract directly. The option always exists for a dapp to directly call the Tableland smart contract, but any query can be sent through the gateway, which will relay the query to the smart contract itself in a subsidized fashion.

3. The Tableland smart contract takes the SQL statement & the permissions for this user, and it incorporates these into emitted events that describe the SQL-based actions to take.

4. The Tableland Validator node listens for these events and subsequently takes one of the following actions:

a) If the user has the correct privileges for writing to a table, a Validator will run the SQL command accordingly (e.g., insert a new row into the table or update an existing value) and broadcast confirmation data to the Tableland network.

b) If the user does not have the right privileges, the Validator will not take any action on the table.

c) If the request is simply a read query, the corresponding data will be returned; Tableland is an entirely open network of relational data where anyone can perform read-only queries on any table.

5. The dapp will be able to reflect any updates that occur on the Tableland Network via the gateway.

Tableland Rigs NFT

Rigs is a generative collection of 3k NFTs designed for those who build on Tableland. They create a foundation to help reward developers for building high-value applications and reward those who contribute to the overall ecosystem.

So what exactly does this NFT have to do with the Tableland protocol? A tweet from the official twitter account on July 15 explains that Rigs holders will have the opportunity to participate in Tableland’s ecosystem, network operations, and protocol design. The team has designed the contract in an upgradeable form so that holders can enjoy the new features and benefits of the NFT in the coming months.

1. Badges — Holders will be awarded badges for their participation in different areas of Tableland. This includes code writing, education and training, web node operation, dapps development, etc.

2. Customized NFT — The team is building a parking lot where holders can take their Rigs out of circulation and modify the shape and features of the Rigs themselves. This idea is heavily influenced by the Moonbirds nesting mechanism.

3. Rigs Contest — Holders can use their Rigs to participate in different contests aiming for votes or community input. The first contest will be held in a few months.

4. Network Validators & Rigs Delegation — This is only available if the Rigs are parked in the garage (equivalent to staking). Although this is only a proposal, it will give the Rigs owner the right to participate directly in the operation of the agreement.

Tableland Rigs NFT Performance

The total supply is 3000 of this project. On July 15th, 2,200 pieces were minted through the Premint raffle with mint price at 0.05 eth. On July 18th, the remaining 800 pieces were minted through the waiting list raffle, mint price maintained at 0.05 eth. The project has performed strongly in the secondary market, and the current floor price stabilizes at around 0.8 eth. The listing rate is at 16% and continues to fall. Single wallet holders account for 60%, and the holding structure is healthy. Except for the 128 held by the project team itself, the accumulated holdings of the top 10 large hodlers only account for 9.9%, and the chips are reasonably dispersed. According to the project coming-up mechanism and continuous empowerment, long-term attention is recommended at this project.

Reference

• Tableland Whitepaper
• Tableland Twitter Account
• NFTNerds Secondary Market Data

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